Month: August 2017

This week, I had the lucky opportunity to follow and engage with a Vancouver-based entrepreneur who is a true Lead by Example type! Jennifer Chan, Co-Founder of Preview Careers opens the door into her startup world!

Jennifer Chan, Entrepreneur, Co-Founder of Preview Careers

I knew that this startup was definitely someone to watch out for when she scored over 140+ personal customer discovery interviews in a matter of DAYS with just 3 people hustling like warriors; these are results that other entrepreneurs take a year to accomplish. Preview Careers’ passion is predicated by their actions and their impact. There is no doubt Jennifer Chan was the perfect choice to highlight as someone who truly stands out! Not only did we get to see the next big thing being built, but we also got a lot of great startup tips from Jennifer Chan that you can check out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmpTxB8ZsSg&list=PLCZnT5ANSu9ZxOGg-dcyc9sqYXFWaw7eC

Preview Careers is the second product to come out of Appfabriqa, the parent company. Being education focused, Preview Careers took their mission back on campus. Jennifer took the bright initiative to personally survey students on campus one on one to understand their pain points when it comes to careers. She quickly built out a sign up page on Wix and starting building out features that the users wanted.

Jennifer’s customer-focused attitude is something that came from her previous startup experience and drove much of how the startup was run. It was a major influence on hiring decisions, product features, task management, etc..

What does a typical week look like for this founder?

She works from 9am-9pm consistently. (It’s pretty impressive!)

Preview Careers’ scores on VenturX’s Entrepreneurship Tool

Mornings:

· Starts work at 9AM

· Design creative assets for marketing content in order to acquire new student users

· Send emails and update her team

Afternoons:

· Track user sign ups and send them over to product manager

· Customer research via online forums, social media, feedback from users to further identify the pain points and analyze in depth research of this market

Evenings:

· Review marketing content from Marketing Intern

· 9PM meetings with her international team

What is Preview Careers?

The PREVIEW mission is to help driven, ambitious, young people explore and discover which career paths will lead them to doing work they love. PREVIEW believes that one of the key ways to exploring the career opportunities that exist, understanding the competitive landscape of the job market, and knowing the nuances of specific roles/titles is through connecting with mentors/advisors that can share their experiences, insight, and wisdom.

www.previewcareers.com

What is the next big milestone?

The next milestone is preparing for Back to School! If you are a university student in Vancouver, check out Preview’s student activities and giveaways on campus coming September 2017! Don’t miss out! Sign up today at www.previewcareers.com!

Get connected to your next mentor!

Preview Mentors

That is all for today! If you are a student or mentor and have questions for Preview Careers, we added her contact info at the bottom!

Success Doesn’t Just Happen, It’s Planned For!

Startups plan and plan and plan…but where does it all go?

We wanted to find out how many startups like to draw out plans so we sent out a survey across Canada and the US to 175 startups. A whopping 68% of startups still like to use Post Its and visually draw it out. Nowadays, we have so many amazing business tool that we can use to make sure that your plan is:

Since starting my customer discovery, I have noticed that a lot of startups do not track their metrics. I don’t just mean the metrics that VenturX focuses on (Product Market Fit, Real-time Runway, Conversion, and Engagement); I mean most startups do not look at any metrics on a weekly basis. At first, I thought it was because some people may be less analytical types than others. But one day, a startup finally told me the answer.

“I don’t have enough data to track! [It is not reflective of my business.]” — Local Montreal Startup

What do we mean by data?

Data is a collection of facts and quantities used for analysis. In this case, we mean tracking your customer interviews and meetings, revenues and expenses, industry metrics, how many customers signed up this week, how many customers are retained, etc.. All data is good data as long as it is tracked accurately and updated regularly. Business intelligence is the process of analyzing data to make business decisions.

1. I don’t have enough data to input!

Quality over quantity. Keep in mind that 2 early adopters who love your product is far better than 100 surveyed people who are only so-so about it. Those 2 that really felt the problem your startup is trying to solve should definitely be tracked.

What to do next: Investors want to see how much you have evolved over time. Tracking early is the only way to show improvement!

2. I am too busy to input my data

Time is Money! If you don’t start tracking from the very beginning, you might end up losing running into dead ends without even knowing it!

What to do next: Spend 10 mins/day to track your data with VenturX and save yourself months of pursuing the wrong path. Almost all startups who ignore data tracking don’t see how much time is wasted. It is just a way for founders to be very conscious of where they invest their time and money.

3. I won’t want investors to see my metrics

Investors do want to see that startups are using business tools to monitor their customers, finances, teams, and project. Not only do you need to have intimate knowledge about how well your startups is doing but you also have to be able to prove it. There is nothing better than seeing a visual of how your business is doing. Investors are keen on data driven results and decisions which is a great habit to form for all startups. Don’t worry if your progress at that stage looks bad, the improvement is the most important part. If you only track when you are rising, it doesn’t look like you improved by very much. You need to show how much you have learned.

“It is not about how much you fall, it is about how quickly you get back up.” — Barbara Cocoran

What to do next: Sign up today www.venturx.ca to get into the good graces of VenturX’s list of investors.

4. It is not reflective of my business

Business intelligence focuses on the business as a whole, not just one particular part. The business includes customers and users, finance, product,etc.. Some founders are technical product managers while others have team management skills. All founders need to be focused on the overall well being of the business, not just the parts they are comfortable with. This is a big reason why some founders feel discomfort when seeing that their metrics are low regarding some parts of their business. The good news is that modern business tools also come with hints on how to improve on weaker parts of the business!

What to do next: Make sure to use a credible and well-rounded tool like VenturX to get the most benefit!

The bottom line is why wouldn’t startups want to use every resource in their toolbox including tracking their data to make smart decisions? Corporations have been using business intelligence with all their C-level executives forever so wouldn’t startups want to model after those best practices?

VenturX is a startup success tracker that focuses on early stage startups who want an operational view of their Product Market Fit, Conversion, Real-Time Runway, and Engagement. Its unique SMART scoring mechanism will provide hints and daily SMS notifications when you reach danger zones in your scores to help you quickly improve. As an added value, you can also submit your metrics and application directly to Seed and Series A investors on the platform with just one click! For more info, go to www.venturx.ca

Why Venturx? In comparison to corporate business tools that are not customized for startups, this is is only a fraction of the price. So this is a very affordable tool with credible value, real time metrics, and even connect to investors who favour analytics and metrics at the startup stage.

Did you know that 90% of startups fail in their first year? VenturX’s goal is to help early stage entrepreneurs beat the odds! VenturX uses benchmarks and metrics from granters and investors across Canada to help guide startups with a SaaS tool. There are different types of “Early Stage” Entrepreneurship broken down as follows. Let us show you how we can help!

1. How VenturX helps in the Idea Creation Stage:

Definition:

· You have thought of a name and what you want to build or maybe a couple of ideas of different potential startups

· You may have recruited interested co-founders

· You may even have business cards!

· You haven’t talked to potential customers in your target market and haven’t invested a lot of time and money yet.

Are you ready for VenturX? YES!

How VenturX can Help:

· VenturX can help you test out your early ideas! Check out this article for 4 MUST-DO steps while in the Idea Creation stage: https://medium.com/@VenturX_team/how-to-survey-for-product-market-fit-in-24-hours-2f79571ea5d4

2. How VenturX helps in the “Pre-Revenue” Stage

Definition:

· You are passionate about the idea and don’t know all the opportunities that are out there

· You don’t have any sales yet (sometimes said as no revenue yet)

· You might be busy building out your product or having a hard time finding those early adopters

Are you ready for VenturX? YES!

How VenturX can Help You Save Time:

· We help you prioritize which new features to build

· We track your early adopters’ pain points

· We free you up to work the other things on your plate!

· VenturX provides industry benchmarks to guide you along the path of success and increase your chances of earning trevenue!

3. How VenturX helps in the Funding Stage (Seed Round or Series A)

Definition:

· You are trying to gain funding from investors

Are you ready for VenturX? YES!

VenturX Entrepreneur Dashboard gives real time Runway

How VenturX can Help:

· We calculate your runway time so you know how much money and time you have to get funding and make that first sale!

· Gives you benchmarks and requirements for funding to best prepare you for success for investor presentations

4. How VenturX helps in the Ramen Profit Stage

Definition:

· You make just enough money to eat Ramen Noodles every day

· Officially launched startup but want more customers

· Already have your early adopters on board

Are you ready for VenturX? YES!

How VenturX can Help:

· Score test results from your market for early majority customers

·After helping you identify early adopters, VenturX guides you to your next target. you don’t want to waste too much money investing in the wrong market. We are here to help!

5. How VenturX helps in the Late Funding Stage (Series B-D)

Product Adoption Lifecycle

Definition:

· You have closed Series A and are looking into more funding

· You are focusing on your innovative R&D and scaling your growth

Are you ready for VenturX? YES

How VenturX can Help:

·You can still use VenturX to test out new product extensions to make sure you are not cannibalizing your own market

“The reality is the Lean Startup method is not about cost, it is about speed. Lean startups waste less money, because they don’t use a disciplined approach to testing new products and ideas.” — Eric Ries, American entrepreneur, blogger and author of The Lean Startup, a book on the lean startup movement.

In this article, we are taking a deep dive into why young companies should track their metrics right from the get go! Here are three reasons to start today!

Before we dive into the reasons why startups need to monitor their metrics, we must first take a look at a few misconceptions as to why early stage startups currently prioritize metrics.

Misconception #1: “I am not tech savvy enough to monitor my metrics!”

HBO’s Silicon Valley —Dashboard

Don’t be scared! You do not have to be super tech savvy to get your metrics!
Nowadays, there are many tracking tools that can help you clearly monitor your metrics whether you are an online or offline business. For examples of easy user dashboards, send us an email.

Misconception #2: I do not have enough data to even track them!

You have to start somewhere! Start at 0 users! Keep in mind that is the same starting point that Facebook, Google, Apple, and that hair salon down the street all started at! The important thing is to JUST DO IT! did you think they waited until they had 500 or 5 million users before they started to track their basic metrics? NO!

3 Reasons why startups need to start measuring their progress now!

1. Make your targets

Knowledge is power! Learning about your metrics can only help your team meet targeted quarterly or monthly goals. For a great example for early-stage startups, I refer you to the Lean Analytics book by Alistair Croll and Ben Yoskovitz. They created a great chart to show what lean metrics you show what to focus on depending on what stage you are at.

2. Not waste time and money on the wrong things

Time is money! Key performance metrics (KPIs) may differ from department to department in big corporations. Early stage startups should see this as an advantage. When teams are small, everyone can just focus on one or two key metrics; they need to have that be the focus on where resources, time, and money is invested in. Once that goal is achieved, you can make another goal. That is exactly what metrics do. If you don’t have a particular goal in mind, tracking tools like VenturX can help by giving you industry benchmarks for early stage startups.

3. Helps prioritize your tasks — things that move the needle

When early stage startups go through the feedback cycle (build, test, analyze, and repeat), having your key metric(s) can help your team prioritize which task to focus on for the next product release or iteration.
For example, if your key metric is to increase engagement, then your team may want to prioritize the features that would keep your customers using the product for longer. You may also want to de-prioritize other features related to marketing channels and conversions.

VenturX is a startup success tool that tracks and benchmarks startups across all industries until they are ready to be connected to funding. VenturX leverages data to optimize the entrepreneurial journey.